Week 22: Tile, Siding and Trim Work Continues

Another week down and more exciting progress to share! I don't have quite as many monumental accomplishments as I did last week (hello tile and wood floors!), but progress is progress and every check mark means we are another day closer to moving in. Eek!

This week was filled with finalization... siding, tile, and lights. As you can see in the photo above, the siding on the front porch was completed. We are using lap siding (horizontal - similar to the garage) underneath the windows. This change in layout creates some excellent texture and in turn, visual interest. The wood (ipe - "ee-pay") was installed under the master bedroom window and will be installed on the roof of the porch next week.

All of our interior doors and trim were delivered this week as well, so installing that stuff will be the next big project. I believe it's supposed to get started on Thursday or Friday next week. I think the trim will really help make the entire space feel more finished.

The recessed lights were installed on the first and second floors along with some smoke detectors. It took me a bit to figure out what the heck the red things on our ceiling were, but have no fear - just a smoke detector!

Tile work also continued this week. We had a minor change to make to the subway tile in the guest bathroom. The installer originally finished off the edges using a vertical tile - you can see what I mean in the image below:

We actually wanted to use something more clean and modern (I'm not a fan of bull nose or anything), so we found a metal edge product called Schleuter. It comes in a number of colors. I actually saw some examples of folks using black and brass edges which looked really neat! We didn't want any contrast, so we simply went with bright white in the jolly design, but I think it looks awesome. Below is what it looks like now.

It may be a small detail, but one that I'm much happier with none the less. :) The floor tile was also tidied up in the guest bath and is all ready for grout.

Now for the really fun part... the master bathroom! Wall tile was installed and it looks AWESOME. I love the matte white 2"x8" subway tile. It's the perfect way to modernize a standard subway tile - you could actually install the tile vertically or in a straight pattern to go even more modern, but we wanted to stick with a nice mix of modern and traditional.

We will have white quartz countertops once our vanities are installed, so we went with the same white quartz on the lip of the shower (the thing you step over to get in the shower) as well as the bottom of the inset shelf. It's a very minor detail, but it looks so clean! I would expect grout to come shortly.

So that's most of the updates for the week. Tyler and I stopped by on Friday because we, once again, had to move our beloved cabinets from the basement back upstairs. I sure hope this is the last time I have to move those puppies! :) Once trim work is complete, they will move on to installing the kitchen cabinets, guest bath vanity, and the master bathroom vanities.

Tyler and I are out of town for the next two weeks, but you can expect a nice big update when we return. It's all coming together!